Portland Timbers 2015 News and Updates

7/9/15 - The Portland Timbers like the looks of their last couple of games. They are coming off of a two-game winning streak and are pressing to turn that into three. They have had a little time off with their last game being on July 5 against the SJ Earthquakes. This game was extremely important for both teams. The San Jose Earthquakes are sitting just slightly outside of playoff contention and the Timbers were in a tie for third place in the Western Conference. The game ended with a 1-0 lead for the Timbers, but that doesn’t show the amount of goal attempts that were made by both teams. The Timbers completed their goal in stoppage time and the Earthquakes were unable to answer. See the Timbers again on July 11. Tickets start at $31 in Philadelphia.

6/12/15 - The Portland Timbers team and fans alike are pleased with how this season has gone, currently standing in fourth place in the western conference. Of course the team is working hard each game to improve their record to move up in the standings. They were able to do just that when they faced off against the New England Revolution on June 6. The match up ended in the Timbers favor with two goals to none. This match was crucial for both teams for a couple of reasons. This was the only time this season they will face off and both teams are fighting for a higher position on the ranking board in their conferences. The Timbers take on the Houston Dynamo on June 20 with expectations to add another win to their record. Tickets for that game are still available and start at $37 a piece.

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2014 Season

9/25/14 - For a first time in international play, it’s not been a bad run for the Portland Timbers so far. In going undefeated through three of their four group-stage matches, the Timbers have rolled to a plus-11 goal differential, the second largest of any club in the tournament (only Mexico’s Club America’s plus-14 is larger). However, they haven’t yet punched their ticket to next spring’s quarterfinals, needing to play C.D. Olimpia once more next month in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa – but even then, the Timbers’ future is in their own hands. For the second time in the tournament, Portland overwhelmed the Guyanese representatives, this time in a 6-0 plastering at Providence Park, in which five different Timbers found the back of the net – Norberto Paparatto scoring twice. MLS action awaits the Timbers this weekend now, with a trip to Toronto F.C.

9/19/14 - Last month saw the Portland Timbers draw their inaugural blood in CONCACAF Champions League action, with a loooong road trip to Guyana. Last week was another Champions League first for the Timbers and their Army of fans, as they welcomed Club Deportivo Olimpia, from the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa. Olimpia featured a number of players from the national team side that appeared at this summer’s World Cup, but overall, the depth of the Timbers proved to be too much; The Timbers got a brace (two goals) from Maximiliano Urruti, plus single goals from Will Johnson and Rauwshan McKenzie to grab a 4-2 home win. This weekend will see the Timbers home for a game with Vancouver, followed by their third of four CCL matches, this one the home leg against Alpha United from Guyana.

9/11/14 - Between the Major League Soccer campaign and the CONCACAF Champions League group stage, things are about to get a bit congested in the Portland Timbers’ schedule, after the Timbers drew 3-3 with San Jose last weekend. The Timbers are still just outside the playoff zone in the Western Conference, two points behind the Canadian Cascadia rivals from Vancouver. The Timbers had to come back twice from deficits to salvage the draw with the Earthquakes, rallying from 2-0 down, then 3-2, all three Portland goals coming late in the second half. This weekend the Timbers will travel to Colorado for an MLS tilt, after which the club will welcome Honduran side Club Deportivo Olimpia, a frequent participant in CCL action, to Providence Park on Tuesday.

9/5/14 - After early season struggles, the Portland Timbers have finally found their form – as well as the back of the nets. With a 3-0 win over Vancouver Whitecaps F.C. in Vancouver, the Timbers leapfrogged the ‘Caps in the Western Conference standings and are now in the crucial fifth place on the ladder, a point ahead of Vancouver. Neither team could solve the other’s defense in the first half; but in the 51st minute, Alvas Powell redirected a cross into the back of the net for Portland. Maximiliano Urruti and Rodney Wallace also scored for Portland to pad the lead. Coming this weekend for the Timbers are another Western rival, San Jose, in a match at Providence Park.

8/29/14 - In baseball they have the adage, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains. Well, in soccer, it’s not the rain, it’s the occasional draw; and in a very long week of cross-country and international travel – to Massachusetts for a 1-1 draw with New England; a midweek trip to Guyana for a CONCACAF Champions League win; and then back home to Portland – the Timbers found that sometimes you lose at home, falling 4-2 to Cascadia rivals Seattle. Fanendo Adi scored a brace – two goals – for the Timbers to keep the final scoreline close but not close enough, as the Timbers, who finished atop the Western Conference last season, remain just outside the fifth-place cutoff for the 2014 postseason, ahead of a visit from the Cascadia side from north of the border in Vancouver this weekend.

8/22/14 - In their first ever match in CONCACAF’s Champions League competition, the Portland Timbers established themselves solidly in CCL Group 5 in the South American country of Guyana, posting a 4-1 win over hosts Alpha United F.C. The trip from Portland to Gerorgetown, Guyana was the longest in CCL history, but it didn’t bother the Timbers, who opened the scoring in the 18th minute on a coolly-finished Steve Zakuani goal from Kalif Alhassan. Alhassan would collect his second assist not long afterwards, passing to Maximiliano Urruti for the Timbers’ second goal of the half. The Timbers’ other scores came in the second half, from Fanendo Adi and Alvas Powell. The Timbers are back in the U.S. this weekend, in a MLS Cascadia derby match at home against Seattle.

8/15/14 - After a very slow start to the 2014 season, the Portland Timbers have put themselves back in the hunt for the Major League Soccer postseason, briefly holding a tie for fifth place in the Western Conference with a 2-0 win over visiting C.D. Chivas USA. The Timbers rode goals from Diego Valeri, just 10 minutes into the match; and Rodney Wallace in the 39th minute, en route to the victory, while holding down the visiting Goats to just nine shots total – just one on frame – for the entire match. Upcoming now for the Timbers is the heretofore unknown: the CONCACAF Champions League; and in a big way, with a visit to the South American nation of Guyana and an Aug. 19 visit to Alpha United F.C., who were the first (and so far, only) Guyanese club to qualify for CCL. Five days later the Timbers host Cascadia rivals Seattle at Providence Park.

8/8/14 - It was not a good night on the road for the Portland Timbers last weekend, as the Timbers found themselves on the very short end of a 3-1 losing scoreline against Los Angeles. The Timbers mounted a valiant effort in keeping the Galaxy off the scoreboard for most of the match; but the floodgates opened in the 72nd minute for L.A. when their Irish international Robbie Keane nodded home the equalizer, then converted a penalty just a few minutes later to give the home side the advantage. Diego Valeri opened the overall scoring early in the game, scoring on a free kick from about 25 yards out. Unfortunately for the Timbers, that would be the only shot on target they would tally all night. The other L.A.-based side, Chivas USA, are next up for the Timbers at Providence Park.

7/28/14 - Keeping contact with the pack in the Western Conference, the Portland Timbers got goals from their Argentine strike duo of Diego Valeri and Maximiliano Urruti to claim a 2-1 win over visiting Colorado this past weekend. The Rapids jumped out to an early lead in the 16th minute on a set piece that was ultimately sent in on a rebound, but it took the home side until the 72nd minute to equalize, when Jack Jewsbury sent in a perfect cross for a hard-charging Urruti, who made no mistake in chipping to the near post. Just five minutes later, Valeri got his chance on a pass from teammate Diego Chara, and sent a fading shot past the Rapids netminder for the game winner, the Timbers’ first home win since early May. The Timbers head to Montreal this weekend for a match with the Impact.

7/18/14 - After falling in U.S. Open Cup play to their Cascadia rivals from Washington state, the Portland Timbers found themselves back in Seattle for another match – this one counting in the Major League Soccer standings – with Sounders F.C. And just like the earlier match, this one would go the Sounders’ way, as the Timbers fell 2-0. The Timbers held on for most of the match until the Sounders’ Clint Dempsey, in his first club match since World Cup duty, broke the scoreless tie. The best chance for the Timbers came earlier in the second half, when Steve Zakuani – a former Sounder – let fly from a few yards outside the penalty area with a shot that went right at the Seattle goalkeeper. The Timbers, eighth out of nine teams now in the Western Conference and two points behind Chivas USA, face Colorado this weekend, then are off until July 27.

7/14/14 - After an Independence Day draw with Los Angeles, the Portland Timbers headed to their Cascadia rivals in Washington state for a U.S. Open Cup quarterfinal tie against Seattle, which required extra time before Sounders F.C. could prevail 3-1 to knock the Timbers out of the Open Cup tournament. Against the Galaxy, the Timbers got an equalizing, then go-ahead goal just minutes apart, as Diego Valeri and Jorge Villafana found the back of the net; however, an own goal left the Timbers earning just a single league point instead of three. A few days later, the Timbers gained an equalizing goal with just seconds remaining in regulation stoppage time from Darlington Nagbe to force extra time, but the Timbers could not keep Seattle down. However, the two teams will face off once again this weekend, this time in league play at Seattle’s CenturyLink Field.

6/23/14 - While the senior side for future Major League Soccer franchise Orlando City S.C. was battling Colorado in the U.S. Open Cup this week, the Lions’ under-23 squad was also in action, a little farther west, where the Portland Timbers recorded a clean sheet in a 3-0 victory in their own USOC matchup at Providence Park. The Timbers’ Gaston Fernandez recorded a pair of goals, his first coming just 11 minutes into the match with a strike from just outside the penalty area that beat the Lions’ young goalkeeper; in the 36th minute, Fernandez converted a penalty kick awarded when Orlando’s keeper brought down Maximiliano Urruti. Taylor Peay, a rookie making his first ever appearance for the Timbers, closed out the scoring in the 68th minute with a goal taken from a difficult angle on the right flank. The Timbers will head to Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. on June 24 to face Sporting Kansas City in the next round of the Open Cup; SKC comes to Providence Park just days later, on June 27 for the team’s next MLS contest.

6/11/14 - After starting out the 2014 season extremely slowly, the Portland Timbers have experienced a marvelous reversal of form coming up on the World Cup break, moving from bottom of the Western Conference table to just two points behind the fifth-place Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Through the first eight games of the campaign, the Timbers’ offense had managed just nine goals – but now, with 15 games under their belt, almost half the season, the team has the second highest total of 26. The Timbers even nailed down a first in team history, picking up a valuable road win at Real Salt Lake last weekend, thanks in no small part to forward Fanendo Adi’s second two-goal game in as many opportunities. With the forwards scoring, this has created opportunities for players like midfielder Diego Valeri, who has moved into first place in the league in assists. After a midweek tilt against F.C. Dallas, the Timbers are off until June 17, when they take on Orlando City S.C.’s U-23 amateur squad in U.S .Open Cup play. After that, the Timbers face off against Sporting Kansas City when they resume MLS play on June 27, also at Providence Park.

5/27/14 - Even though they’re at the bottom of the Major League Soccer Western Conference table (with company – San Jose and Chivas USA are level on points as well), the Portland Timbers are finally showing some signs of life, with a win and two draws in May, all at the friendly home of Providence Park. Their last game, a 3-3 draw with visiting Columbus Crew, saw the Timbers have a player sent off midway through the first half, yet come from behind twice late in the second half to salvage the single point. Will Johnson, in the 80th minute, then Gaston Fernandez five minutes later, provided the heroics for Portland, extending the Timbers’ unbeaten string to four games in total. Next up is a date in New Jersey with the New York Red Bulls, who are in the midst of a tight Eastern Conference race.

The Rose City of Portland, Oregon has a team they can definitely be proud of in the Portland Timbers. In just three seasons of MLS competition, the Timbers have established themselves, along with their Cascadia rivals in Seattle and Vancouver, as one of the league’s elite sides. It starts with head coach Caleb Porter, who made a name for himself in American soccer circles as coach at the University of Akron. In Porter’s first season at the helm of the Timbers, Portland topped the Western Conference table and nearly made it to the MLS Cup finals, being eliminated by Real Salt Lake in the conference finals by a 5-2 aggregate. Returning for the 2014 campaign are leading scorer Diego Valeri, a designated player from Argentina; African midfielders Darlington Nagbe (Liberia) and Steve Zakuani (Dem. Rep. of the Congo); and goalkeeping stalwart Donovan Ricketts (Jamaica). Look for Timber Jim to rev up his chainsaw many more times in 2014.

2013 Season

10/22/13 - The Western Conference is so tight this season that the Timbers could finish in fourth or first place in the standings with just one regular season game left. Portland will travel to Los Angeles to play CD Chivas USA; a win could give the team their first Conference title. Portland has clinched a MLS Cup Playoffs berth as have their rivals Seattle Sounders. The team is also guaranteed a home game at JELD-WEN Field in the MLS Playoffs which will certainly prove to be advantageous considering they’ve won 15 games in a row at home this season. Considering Portland Timbers tickets were the most expensive entering the 2013 season, we’d expect prices for MLS Cup Playoff tickets to be no different. After finishing next to last just a season ago, excitement is high for this Portlandia team.